HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL: Rancocas preps for TofC showdown against Shabazz

With legendary coach Vanessa Watson at the helm, Newark’s Shabazz High girls basketball teams have won five NJSIAA Tournament of Champions titles, but until this season had missed the championship game four straight years.

Tomorrow at Trenton’s Sun Bank Arena Rancocas Valley coach Anthony Corrado and his girls team from Mount Holly will be trying to add to Shabazz’s frustration.

In a great North Jersey vs. South Jersey showdown between the top two ranked teams in the Garden State. 32-1 Shabazz will face 30-1 Rancocas Valley at 6 p.m. to start the final night of high school basketball in the state.

It’s the first time the TofC finals have been played this far south in the Garden State.

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The second game, which tips off at 8:15 p.m. pits parochial powers Roselle Catholic, the Non-Public B champ, and St. Joe’s of Metuchen, the Non-Public A winner, vying for the boys title. Both are first time TofC finalists.

Rancocas Valley, No. 1 in The Trentonian Area Top 20 and No. 2 in the State Top 20 behind top-ranked state leader Shabazz, has never made it this far into the season. But it has won 19 in a row, the latest a dramatic 59-58 win over Red Bank Catholic on Thursday.

The same night Shabazz cruised past Pt. Pleasant Beach, 65-50, to end a 4-game TofC losing streak. The Newark school had not qualified for a Tofc title game since 2008 when it outlasted Trenton, 48-37. Watson’s teams had lost the previous four years in the TofC semifnial, incluing 54-44 to Trenton Catholic Academy in 2011.

After being outscored 25-4 in the third quarter by Red Bank Catholic on Thursday to fall behind by 10, RV stormed back to win on a jumper in the lane by Dominique Ward with 10 seconds to play.

“There is never any panic in our team,” says Corrado. “When you have girls like (Lauren) Moses, Ward and (Brianna) Logan you can go on runs.”

That’s what the Burlco Liberty champs did to extend the longest — and winningest season — in their history.

“We just needed to play possession by possession and make some stops. We did that,” said Corrado.

Tomorrow RV will need to do that for four quarters to bring the TofC title back to the Trenton area since another Burlco Libety champ - TCA - did it two seasons ago.